church, world and the christian life

August 15, 2011

Creating a list of Baptist 'saints'

So I was reading a review earlier today of The Origin of Feasts, Fasts and Seasons which will appear in the next issue of Regent's Reviews and then this post by Steve Harmon got me thinking who might appear on a list of Baptist 'saints' - who might we want to recognise for the contribution they have made to life and mission of the church. This would be a supplement to the names of other Christians from other traditions. It might certainly help do some Baptist history in our churches. This is an idea floated by Steve in his book Towards Baptist Catholicity where he says 'Baptist congregations might be able to include in their own weekly worship a few moments for telling stories of men and women who have provided worthy examples of lives lived in the service of God and humanity' (p.170). BMS this year have created some resources to celebrate 250 yrs since the birth of William Carey (Carey Sunday is 21 August), which is a start.

Here's my starter for ten ...

31 January Charles Haddon Spurgeon

23 February George Beasley-Murray

16 March Marianne Farningham

4 April Martin Luther King

7 May Andrew Fuller

9 June William Carey

28 August John Smyth

30 October James McClendon

... who else should be added and give us a date?

I'm not sure where to put Thomas Helwys as we don't know when he died.

I deliberately put 'saints' in brackets, and see it as a possible means of just remembering those who have gone before us - their life and/or writing - and how that might inspire us in our church life and mission today ... so it has a historical and missionary focus ...

This is an initial list ! Some of these have dates and some don't, but they all match the criteria announced ! The challenge will be to produce a global list which is not weighted to the isles/USA and male ! May the holy Spirit be with you ! - Keith

John Fawcett:Pastor, educator, hymn writer (“Blest be the tie that Binds”)

A Trevor Hubbard:Baptist leader, pastor and statesman in north west England

D Tait Patterson;Baptist pastor, liturgist, developer of the idea of retreats for pastors

George Farr:Old Testament scholar, noted for his exemplary pastoral care of students.

John Howard Shakespeare:BUGB General Secretary and ecumenist. 1898 -1924

Dan Taylor:leader of the General Baptists of the New Connexion

David J Charley:President, BUGB, leading chest physician, campaigner on moral, social and health issues.

Osvald Tärk:(born 1 Oct 1904 - died 25 May 1984) - influential pastor, theologian, well known as pastoral counselor and as a person of integrity in Estonia and beyond

Emilie Bertelson;(born 14 October 1884 - died 7 July 1965) - missionary in the East regions of Estonia near Lake Peipsi, worked especially among Russian speaking people, in her youth in the aftermath of Communist revolution worked in St Petersburg, a woman whose commitment and spirituality made an impact on people who met her

To put a spanner in the works, I worry about creating such lists. While I agree with Haymes, Gouldbourne and Cross (On being the Church, Paternoster, 2008), that “special exemplars ... lives should not be forgotten, especially the martyrs”, one word in the sentence preceding the quote above (“The communion of the saints refers to all who share the holy life in Christ”) might frame the discussion - all.

My worry is threefold: first, a list of notable noteworthy nobles might disfigure our Baptist roots by creating a priesthood of select believers. Second, our history could become the sum of noteworthy individual lives, instead of one continuous, unified story of God’s journey of redemption. Third, the result of the above might endorse our the study of the Bible as a mosaic of theology, history, morality, etc.

SPKC’s “The Drama of Scripture - Finding our place in the Biblical story” (Bartholomew and Goheen), though simplistic and therefore perhaps unappealing to theologians and academics, might provide an appropriate framework for the proposed list of ‘saints’, that the noteworthy lives of those men and women who preceded us would be so compelling as to draw us into the story of God wherein we find our place, make it our own and model it for others to desire to make it their own.

In your quote from “On being Church”, I am most encouraged by the authors’ call “to review our tradition of keeping the local church anniversary as a time for reflection and memory”. On such occasions, while “recall(ing) the saints in the great Christian tradition whose story inspires and helps us to understand what following Christ today might mean”, we might also find and honour past and present local ‘saints’, who were part of the same story of God’s story.